Former Socker Clavijo Paces Lazers to 4-3 Victory

Former Socker Fernando Clavijo scored 2 goals Monday to lead the Los Angeles Lazers past his old team for a 4-3 overtime victory in a Major Indoor Soccer League exhibition at Folsom’s Indoor Soccer Center. But the Sockers were thinking about more than one former San Diego star Monday.

Steve Zungul, who played with the Sockers for 2 seasons and led the league with 68 goals as a Socker in 1984-85, has been looking to return to the game since parting ways with the Tacoma Stars.

Zungul contacted the Sockers and another team a couple of weeks ago, but nobody has decided yet to take a chance despite his willingness to play for the league minimum of $24,000.

“Right now, our coach (Ron Newman) hasn’t made a decision to bring him in for a tryout yet,” Socker President Ron Cady said. “Steve has called us and we’ve met with him about the possibility of playing. If Ron wants to bring him in, we’d be open to the idea.”

Newman said he hasn’t made a decision yet because he’s still waiting to see what his team looks like without Zungul.

“If we signed Zungul right now, it would only be as a replacement job,” Newman said. “We already have plenty of players who can play his forward position. We’ll just have to see.”

Monday night, one of those forwards, Poli Garcia, scored once, as did midfielder Paul Dougherty and defender Ralph Black. But Clavijo, who left the Sockers this summer to join the Lazers, scored twice to help the game reach overtime.

Thor Lee scored almost 12 minutes into the extra session to win it for Los Angeles.

Socker Notes

Coach Ron Newman said it was top priority for the Sockers to sign another defensemen. A leading candidate would be Cacho, who played with Kansas City last year and has been working out with the Sockers for the last week. . . . Defenseman Gary Etherington’s arthritic knee swelled before Monday’s game. Newman said Etherington probably wouldn’t play again today when the Lazers and Sockers meet at 9 a.m. at Folsom’s.